"A multi-agency state task force assembled to tackle a ubiquitous chemical contaminant across Michigan continues to operate under the Whitmer administration, but without a director or the executive directive that created it."

"The ice in Antarctica is melting six times faster than it did just 40 years ago, a new study reports.

This dramatic acceleration of the ice loss is a clear indication of human-caused climate change, the study authors said.

Lead author Eric Rignot, an ice scientist at the University of California–Irvine, said the melting ice has caused global sea levels to rise more than half an inch since 1979.  

While that may not sound like much, the amount is certainly alarming to climate scientists, as it's a preview of things to come:"

"Up against a federal deadline to approve a Colorado River drought plan — a “generational change” in Arizona water management — four key legislators say they’re optimistic they’ll meet it."

"PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon wildlife officials have started killing California sea lions that threaten a fragile and unique type of trout in the Willamette River, a body of water that’s miles inland from the coastal areas where the massive carnivorous aquatic mammals usually congregate to feed."

"Scientists say the world’s oceans are warming far more quickly than previously thought, a finding with dire implications for climate change because almost all the excess heat absorbed by the planet ends up stored in their waters."

"In a rare rebuke, the United Nations has instructed Canada to suspend construction of the Site C dam on B.C.’s Peace River until the project obtains the “free, prior and informed consent” of Indigenous peoples."

"State lawmakers from nine states introduced bills Jan. 8 aimed at blocking oil and gas drilling off their coasts, and a group of House Democrats meanwhile unveiled measures that would ban drilling in federal waters off much of the country."

"The Chesapeake Bay Foundation downgraded the health of the nation’s largest estuary Monday from a C-minus to a D-plus, blaming the dip in its latest report card on increased pollution from extraordinary amounts of rainfall in 2018."